On Feb. 23, 2012, the International Criminal Court decided to deepen its investigation of human rights abuses in Côte d’Ivoire by looking into events not only in 2010–11 but also back to 2002. Former president Laurent Gbagbo, who was awaiting trial in The Hague for crimes against humanity, and Prime Minister Guillaume Soro, who in 2002 had commanded the mutinous soldiers who took power in the north and triggered a nine-year civil war, both officially welcomed the extended inquiry, although it would possibly have repercussions for each of them.

Legislative elections held on Dec. 11, 2011, and Feb. 26, 2012, gave Pres. Alassane Ouattara’s Rally of Republicans (RDR) an absolute majority, winning almost 55% of the National Assembly’s seats. Former president Henri Konan Bédié’s Democratic Party of Côte d’Ivoire–African Democratic Rally (PDCI–RDA), an ally of the RDR, took about 34% of the seats. On March 8 Prime Minister Soro tendered his resignation to the president, explaining that his duties as a deputy did not allow him to properly fulfill his functions in the executive branch. On March 12 Soro was elected president of the National Assembly, the country’s second most powerful position. Jeannot Ahoussou-Kouadio succeeded him as prime minister. On March 29 a spokesman for Gbagbo’s Ivorian Popular Front (FPI), which had boycotted the legislative elections, announced that it would join the reconciliation process.

Despite these hopeful signs, sporadic violence broke out, particularly in the west. After unidentified gangs killed four people near Duékoué, hundreds of armed townsmen on July 20 attacked and burned a refugee camp, home to displaced local Guéré villagers and FPI supporters. Duékoué was the scene of a March 2011 massacre that left several hundred Gbagbo supporters dead.

In early June former defense minister Lida Kouassi was arrested in Lomé, Togo, and extradited to Côte d’Ivoire’s capital, Abidjan. It was claimed that he possessed documents that outlined details of a planned coup d’état. On June 13 the interior minister, Hamed Bakayoko, announced that several arrests of Gbagbo loyalists linked to Liberian mercenaries had taken place and the plot had been thwarted.

An attack near the Liberian border on June 8 left seven UN peacekeepers from Niger and eight Ivoirian civilians dead. On June 23 the Liberian government extradited 41 Ivoirians suspected of having carried out the border raids.

Six years after toxic waste was dumped in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire’s minister of African integration, Adama Bictogo, resigned under pressure in the face of allegations that he had been involved with the nonpayment of millions of U.S. dollars in compensation. Bictogo denied any wrongdoing, although none of the $160 million paid to the Ivoirian government in 2007 had yet to reach the 6,000 victims.

In November Ouattara dissolved his cabinet—reportedly over differences related to gender-equity legislation. He appointed Daniel Kablan Duncan of the PDCI as the new prime minister.

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May 31, 1945 Gagnoa, Côte d’Ivoire Ivoirian educator and politician who became president of Côte d’Ivoire in 2000. During his presidency, he grappled with civil war and an extended period of disunity. After disputing that he lost an election in November 2010, he refused...